Jakarta. South Korea is open to investing in Indonesia’s nuclear power generation, according to a diplomat, although Seoul is aware that the decision to tap into the controversial low-carbon power rests in Jakarta’s hands.

The Prabowo Subianto administration is stepping up plans to use nuclear power to generate electricity. Indonesia currently has a large share of coal in its energy mix. The country now wants to bring its first-ever nuclear plant to commercial operations by 2032 as it searches for cleaner energy sources, a plan that has caught several foreign partners’ attention. 

“If Indonesia decides to go forward with nuclear energy, Korea would be one of the ideal partners,” Uhm Taeho, the political section chief and counsellor at the South Korean embassy, told a recent media workshop in Jakarta. 

In an attempt to sweeten the deal, Uhm Taeho talked of South Korea’s experience of running 26 nuclear power plants on its soil, none of which had reported “major incidents”. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported that nuclear power made up 31.7% of the country’s electricity mix as of 2024. 

“We are one of the leaders in developing small modular reactors," Uhm Taeho said, citing South Korea’s overseas plants in the Czech Republic and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

"But investment in nuclear energy is a huge and long-term decision. It is up to the Indonesian people, its government, companies and all the stakeholders to decide to go down that route."

Prabowo’s talks with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in April also saw both countries agreeing to explore nuclear cooperation. The offer, however, would put Seoul in tight competition with Russia and the US. 

Moscow has been nudging Indonesia into working with its state nuclear firm Rosatom, with the latter claiming that a floating station could be in the pipeline. 

Indonesia has partnered with the Oregon-based nuclear technology firm NuScale in a Japan-backed project to develop a small modular reactor in West Kalimantan. The NuScale project has made significant headway compared to the other investor candidates following the techno-economic studies. 

On possible nuclear power use, Prabowo not long ago said that he would listen to what the experts say on safety before making a decision. He remarked: “If we can use it, then why not?”

Beyond nuclear power, Indonesia has amassed quite a substantial amount of South Korean investments. It totaled at least $880 million in the first half of 2026, government database showed.

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The workshop was part of the Indonesian Next Generation Journalist Network on Korea. Hosting this capacity-building program are the foreign policy think tank FPCI and the Korea Foundation.

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